EP0102232B1

EP0102232B1 - Method and apparatus for marbleizing an extruded dough

Info

Publication number: EP0102232B1
Application number: EP83304840A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Max Louis Wasserbach; William Alex Blain
Original assignee: Nabisco Brands Inc
Current assignee: Nabisco Brands Inc
Priority date: 1982-08-25
Filing date: 1983-08-22
Publication date: 1986-11-20
Also published as: JPS5959134A; DE3367720D1; AU1817783A; NZ205193A; EP0102232A3; ATE23657T1; EP0102232A2; JPS6262128B2; US4445835A; CA1214075A; AU570927B2

Abstract

Marbleized cookie dough pieces are formed by independently feeding different color doughs into a common extrusion die, in which a rotating impeller is located. The impeller lards portions of each dough into the flow of the other to produce a spiral pattern in the extrudate which is sliced to produce spirally marbleized dough pieces.

Description

Background of the Invention

The present invention relates to dough extrusion, and, more particularly, to the marbleizing of extruded doughs.
The intermixing of light and dark doughs to produce an interesting marble-like effect in baked goods is a well known technique. The two doughs normally are of different flavours, most conventionally vanilla and chocolate, to provide an interesting taste sensation in addition to its attractive appearance. Examples of such intermixing include US Patent No. 1,083,275 to O. Eberhard and US Patent No. 3,689,280 to F.C. Werner.
To produce the marble effect, the two doughs normally must be folded together with great care so that, for example, a segment of dark dough intrudes into a segment of light dough without the loss of the individual characters of the two doughs. Any excessive mixing tends to blend the two doughs and destroys the marbled effect.
It has been proposed to extrude dough and a filling as discrete layers by conveying these materials through separate chambers of a hopper to an extruder, as shown by US Patent No. 2,811,117 to G.C. Monaco. However, the materials are not spirally marbelized.

Summary of the Invention

According to one aspect of this invention there is provided a method for producing an extruded baked goods dough, comprising feeding first and second extrudable materials into -a hopper divided by a partition into first and second chambers, said first material being fed to said first chamber of said hopper and said second material being fed to said second chamber of said hopper, and conveying said first and second materials through said hopper beyond the end of the partition and through an extrusion die, characterised in that both materials are doughs and the doughs are of different colours, in that the doughs contact one another in side by side relationship within the die and in that at least the central portion of the combined doughs is spun to lard portions of each dough into the flow of the other dough to produce a spiral marbelized pattern.
. According to another aspect of this invention there is provided an apparatus for producing cookie dough comprising: a hopper having an outlet; a plurality of extrusion dies fed from said outlet; a pair of dough feeding rollers spaced from each other and interposed between said outlet and said dies to receive dough flow from said outlet and deliverthe dough flow to said dies; and a partition dividing said hopper and extending between said rollers to a point adjacent to the inlets of said dies, said partition being spaced from each of said rollers, whereby different coloured doughs on opposite sides of said partition may be independently fed by said rollers along said partition into said dies, characterised by:

an impeller within each die below said partition for larding portions of each dough into the flow of the other dough to produce a spirally marbelized extrudate, said partition including a hollow tube extending to the inlet of each die and plate members interconnecting said tubes;
a shaft extending through each of said tubes, said impellers being mounted on said shafts; and
drive means at the upper end of said shafts for rotating said shafts to drive said impellers.

As hereinafter described in detail, the present invention provides a method for automating the production of a marbleized extruded baked goods dough, and a simple and effective apparatus for carrying out this method.

Brief Description of the Drawings

A preferred embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention has been chosen for the purposes of illustration and description, and is shown in the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the specification, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a top view of a cookie baked from a dough piece formed by the method and apparatus of the present invention;
Fig. 2 is a schematic sectional view of apparatus according to the present invention;
Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 3-3 on Fig. 2;
Fig. 4 is a top view of one of the impellers used by the apparatus; and
Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken along line 5-5 on Fig. 4.

Description of the Preferred Embodiment

Referring to the drawings in detail there is shown in Figs. 2-5 apparatus according to the present invention which generally comprises a hopper 10, a pair of dough feed rolls 11 and 12, flow directing formations 14 and 15, a base plate 16, and a die member 17. The feed rolls 11, 12 are independently driven by motors 19,20 respectively. The motors 19, 20 are individually controlled by speed control devices 21, 22.
As seen in Fig. 3, the die member 17 is formed to provide a row of tapered extrusion die passageways 24.
A partition assembly 25 extends downwardly from the mouth of the hopper 10, passing between the rollers 11, 12 and terminating at the die inlets.
The assembly 25 includes a tunnel member 26 extending between the side walls 27, 29 of the hopper 10. The tunnel member 26 comprises a floor member 30, side walls 31, and roof panels 32, 33. A series of tubes 34 are set into the floor member 30 and extend downwardly to the dies. To complete the lower portion of the partition 25, plates 35 are mounted between the tubes, and plates 36 are mounted between the hopper side walls 27, 29 and the end tubes 34.
A shaft 37 extends downwardly through each of the tubes 34 from the tunnel member 26 into the die passageways 24. The shafts 37 are journalled in the tubes 34 by means of bearings 39 (Fig. 3). A worm gear 40 is mounted on the upper end of each shaft 37. A thrust bearing arrangement, shown for convenience as a collar 41 and a washer 42, is positioned on the floor member to engage the gear 40 and support the shaft 37. The worm gears 40 are driven by worm segments 44 keyed to a driven shaft 45 which is supported at intervals by bearing blocks 46.
The lower ends of each of the shafts 37 has a reduced diameter section 47 on which an impeller blade 50 is positioned. The impeller 50 comprises a tubular body 51 which receives a conical blade 52. The blade extends throughout an angle of 180 degrees surrounding the body 51, and has leading and trailing edges 54 and 55 which extend to a point on the body 51 which is opposite to the center of the blade 52.
In operation, a dark dough is poured into the hopper on one side of the partition 25 and a light dough is poured on the other side. The dough feeding rollers 11 and 12 move the doughs along opposite sides of the partition into the inlet of the die passageways 24 when the flows combine. The speed of each roller driver motor 19, 20 is regulated by the speed controls 21, 22 to control the rate of flow of each of the doughs and thereby control the ratio of the different doughs in the product and compensate for differences in the physical properties of the different doughs.
The impellers are driven at a suitable speed, for example 375 rpm, to lard portions of each dough into the flow of the other dough and produce a spiral marbleized pattern within the extrudate.
The extrudate is then sliced by a moving wire 56 to form cookie dough pieces. The-dough pieces are deposited on a conveyor belt 57 for transport to a baking oven.
It will be seen from the foregoing that the present invention provides a method for automating the production of marbleized extruded baked goods dough and provides simple and effective apparatus for carrying out this method.

Claims

1. A method for producing an extruded baked goods dough, comprising feeding first and second extrudable materials into a hopper (10) divided by a partition (25) into first and second chambers, said first material being fed to said first chamber of said hopper (10) and said second material being fed to said second chamber of said hopper (10), and conveying said first and second materials through said hopper (10) beyond the end of the partition (25) and through an extrusion die (17), characterised in that both materials are doughs and the doughs are of different colours, in that the doughs contact one another in side by side relationship within the die (17) and in that at least the central portion of the combined doughs is spun to lard portions of each dough into the flow of the other dough to produce a spiral marbelized pattern.

2. A method of producing extruded baked goods dough according to claim 1, further comprising:

slicing the spiral marbelized pattern extrudate to form cookie dough pieces.

3. A method for producing extruded baked goods dough according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said spinning is effected by a rotating impeller (50).

4. A method for producing extruded baked goods dough according to claim 3, wherein said impeller (50) rotates about an axis which is coplanar with said partition (25).

5. A method for producing extruded baked goods dough according to claim 3, wherein said impeller is driven at about 375 revolutions per minute.

6. A method for producing extruded baked goods dough according to claim 2, further comprising:

baking the cookie, dough pieces to make a marbelized cookie.

7. An apparatus for producing cookie dough comprising: a hopper (10) having an outlet; a plurality of extrusion dies (24) fed from said outlet; a pair of dough feeding rollers (11, 12) spaced from each other and interposed between said outlet and said dies (24) to receive dough flow from said outlet and deliver the dough flow to said dies (24); and a partition (25) dividing said hopper (10) and extending between said rollers (11, 12) to a point adjacent to the inlets of said dies, said partition (25) being spaced from each of said rollers (11, 12), whereby different coloured doughs on opposite sides of said partition (25) may be independently fed by said rollers (11,12) along said partition (25) into said dies (24), characterised by:

an impeller (50) within each die (24) below said partition (25) for larding portions of each dough into the flow of the other dough to produce a spirally marbelized extrudate, said partition (25) including a hollow tube (34) extending to the inlet of each die (24) and plate members (35, 36) interconnecting said tubes (34);

a shaft (37) extending through each of said tubes (34), said impellers (50) being mounted on said shafts (37); and

drive means (46, 44, 45) at the upper end of said shafts (37) for rotating said shafts (37) to drive said impellers (50).

8. An apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising:

means (56) for slicing cookie dough pieces from said spirally marbelized extrudate.

9. An apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said impeller includes a blade (52) having the shape of a segment of an annular cone, the axis of the cone being aligned with the axis of the impeller shaft (37).

10. An apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising:

an enclosed tunnel (26) within said hopper and extending along the partition (25), each of said shafts (37) extending into said tunnel (26), said drive means (40, 44, 45) being provided within said tunnel.

11. An apparatus according to claim 7, wherein each of said dough feeding rollers is independently driven by a speed controlled motor (19, 20, 21, 22).